Ponder This

"Ponder this: If the Father is satisfied with His Son's full payment for sin, and we are in His son, by grace through faith, then He is satisfied with you and me."

~ The Grace Awakening, Charles R. Swindoll

If I believed that God was satisfied with me, I would be living my life differently.

Somehow, someway, somewhere along the way I decided that God was dissatisfied with me. I don't know if someone told me this--although I have a feeling a lot of someones told me this.

And I believed them.

And I also believed that I could never, ever in a million years satisfy God.

And you know what?

That's true. I never could satisfy God.

But isn't that why Jesus came and died on the cross? To satisfy the cost of my sins--and yours?

So, it's satisfied. God is satisfied.

And I don't have to satisfy him.

He is satisfied with me.

I just paused long enough to say those words out loud. The phonetics of those 6 words make it sound like one long exhale: He is satisfied with me.

Try it. Say those words out loud.

He is satisfied with me.

There's a feeling of release when I say those words.

If I will grasp the true meaning of those words such an overwhelming burden will be lifted off of me. Maybe I let someone else put it there at first. But I've allowed the burden of trying to please God to stay there.

No longer.

God is satisfied with me.

Just Thinking Out Loud: Radical thinking, this. An Accidental Pharisee has to shrug off all the shoulds and coulds and musts and realize that God is satisfied. I've heard it said many, many times: There is nothing I can do that will make God love me less. There is nothing I can do that will make God love me more.

Do I believe it?

To Good to be True

"Grace focuses on who God is and what He has done, and takes the focus off ourselves. And yet it's so easy to think we need to do something to earn God's favor, as though God's grace is to good to be true." ~ Charles Swindoll, The Grace Awakening

I often say I don't "get" grace.

I know I've received grace.

I just don't get it.

But I've decided to not say that anymore.

Or, at least, I'm going to try and say that less.

The truth is, I can "get" grace. God did not mean for me to be eternally frustrated by his means of reconciliation, which is grace.

Sure, living out grace may seem like a foreign language to an Accidental Pharisee like me. But, if I can comprehend high school French--and I did--then I can ask God to help me understand his grace. If I can learn sign language--and I did--then I can read the Word and watch others whose lives overflow with grace and come to a better understanding of grace.

I like how Charles Swindoll says, "Grace focuses on who God is and what He has done and takes the focus off ourselves."

I think those are steps 1, 2 and 3 for learning more about grace:

1. Take the focus off me

2. Focus more on God and who He is

3. Focus on what He has done for me.

Just Thinking Out Loud: Accidental Pharisees like to make things harder than they need to be. I don't need to go back to square one and figure out who God is. I've had a relationship with him for years now. He's remained faithful to me through the good and the bad times--and the times when I've been less than faithful to him.

Who is God? He is faithful. What has he done for me? He has loved me despite my Accidental Pharisee-ism, when I've diluted his grace with my "Doesn't-this-make-me-just-a-bit-more-acceptable" efforts.

Who have you discovered God to be? What has he done for you?